Inventing adulthoods: a biographical approach to understanding youth citizenship

Traditionally adulthood and citizenship have been synonymous. Yet adulthood is changing. In this paper we explore how young people's evolving understandings of adulthood may contribute towards an understanding of citizenship within the broader context of increasingly extended and fragmented transitions. The paper draws on a unique qualitative longitudinal data set in which 100 young people, from contrasting social backgrounds in the United Kingdom, have been followed over a five‐year period using repeat biographical interviews. We present first the themes that emerged from a cross‐cut analysis of the first of three rounds of interviews distinguishing between relational and individualised understandings of adulthood. We then present a model we developed to capture the ways that young people sought out opportunities for competence and recognition in different fields of their lives. Finally a case study that follows a young woman through her three interviews illustrates how these themes can appear in an individual trajectory. We offer the model and case study as a way of exploring a more subjective approach to citizenship in which participation is not deferred to some distant future in which economic independence is achieved, but is understood as constantly constructed in the present.     

Women, Language and Identity

This paper explores the ways in which women and men use language to mark gender boundaries, and to convey femininity and masculinity in the construction of a gendered identity. The first section of the paper examines evidence that language serves as a gender identity marker not only in the particular phonological variants used more by women than by men, but also in the wider stylistic range evident in women's discourse in some communities. The gender distribution and social meanings associated with particular pragmatic particles and interactional devices provide another indication of the ways in which women and men construct and express femininity and masculinity in interaction. The final section analyses the construction of stereotypical gender identities through conversational interaction, firstly by means of a narrative and secondly through the carefully crafted dialogue of an advertisement. The paper demonstrates the complementary nature of macro-level quantitative studies and qualitative ethnographic analysis in gender research.     

Placing Clinical Social Workers “Between a Legal Rock and a Practice Hard Place”: Reactions to Madden and Parody

The debate about the veracity of incest memories uncovered in therapy is often impassioned and acrimonious. Recent statements by various professional organizations, advising that corroboration of recovered memories is the only method for determining their accuracy, have not decreased the intensity of this debate. This response to Madden and Parody's paper discusses the importance of corroboration of recovered memories of sexual abuse and details the clinical, scientific, and legal foundations for this approach. A point of confusion in Madden and Parody's paper and an important aspect of this response is the difference between clients who uncover completely new memories of childhood sexual abuse and clients who enter therapy with a history of sexual abuse. Those clients with new memories are the focus of this debate and the standard of care proposed in this paper.     

Multiple forms of violence and other criminal activities as an indicator of severe child maltreatment

Child protection practice still appears to view child maltreatment as an event largely isolated from other family violence and criminal activities. Research undertaken by the authors suggests that children who have been subjected to the more severe forms of abuse are likely to have come from families who engage in several forms of criminal activity, inside and outside the family, which is often severe in nature. The child who has been maltreated may also become a participant in these activities. The authors recommend that these factors should be investigated in families who have maltreated a child, as the presence or absence of several forms of concurrent violence and other criminal activity may provide an important clue about the welfare of the child. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Still Face: A History of a Shared Experimental Paradigm

When faced by a suddenly unresponsive social partner, young infants typically react by sobering and gazing away. This still‐face reaction has intrigued researchers for several decades. In this article, we present a history of the still‐face paradigm in which we locate early observations of the still‐face effect, describe the formalization of a procedure that reliably produces it, and discuss how this procedure has been used to investigate a broad range of questions about early social and emotional development. In addition, we reflect on the heuristic value of shared experimental paradigms.     

Homelessness as one component of housing instability and its impact on the development of children in poverty

The number of families with children living in poverty and experiencing housing instability and homelessness has increased dramatically over the last two decades. Current public policy decisions will lead to further increases. Understanding the impact of this instability on the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development of children is imperative. Few studies critically examine the effects of instability on both domiciled and homeless children. This research examined the effects of homelessness and housing instability on 133 children 8 to 12 years of age living in poverty. Results indicate that whether a child is currently homeless is not as significant as overall stability which may have a long ranging effect on a child's future development.     

An interactional model of questions as therapeutic interventions

We dedicate this article to the memory of Steve de Shazer, who was the University's External Examiner for the doctoral dissertation on which this article is based. His comments were both generous and influential, as they were on many other occasions. We would also like to thank Ron Chenail (as Editor of JMFT ) and Dora Fried Schnitman (as Editor of Sistemas Familiares) for coordinating the simultaneous review and publication of this article in English and Spanish.